Our propeller plane had been circling over the verdant rice fields of Siem Reap for over half an hour now. Earlier, the pilot had announced something about waiting for permissions to land and Kavita’s mind promptly conjured up conspiracies of the Khmer Rouge kind. She eagerly made her way to the back of the plane to glean more information from the cabin crew only to find out that heavy rain was making it impossible for our toy plane to land. So much for sleuthing around for a sensational news item!
The visibility was nearly nil when our pilot finally swooped down at a forty-five degree angle and made a dash landing in the thick of blinding rain. Rain like we’ve never witnessed before in our lives. We clapped with joy for touching ground and stared in disbelief at the curtain of rain outside. It was still crashing down on the flimsy airport roof as we cleared immigration and made our way out.
Kinal, our taxi driver, (whose name means chubby boy that he’s not any more) drove us into town in his Toyota that magically transformed into a boat every time we had to cross a river-sized puddle. Just kidding. Kina managed quite well in English and made no attempt to dissuade us from staying at our chosen hotel. Such a pleasant surprise after Thailand. In fact, Kina complimented our choice of hotel and offered to be at our service for our trips to Angkor. Instinctive distrust prevented us from signing him on initially. But later we did and we’re so glad for it!
The Angkor temples can be hurriedly toured in one day, completely covered in three, and leisurely studied for seven days...or more. Although we opted for the second option, we were mighty skeptical about visiting the ruins for three consecutive days. All our doubts vanished the moment we first set eyes on Angkor Wat next morning.
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